Summary

Great addition to the RPG genre

The Good

One of the most interesting things in the game is the Dreamworld. This dreamworld has many things to offer you. In most cases, you can avoid even using it if you don't like switching between the two, so that's a nice aspect of the dreamworld. But, using the dreamworld can make the game that much more interesting. The dreamworld is a world where most people cannot enter, but where you can find ghosts and other spirits and demons. Because most creatures and people cannot be in both places at once, it allows you to use it as a hideaway if you find yourself outnumbered without an escape route. Just be careful if you haven't cleared out the area in the dreamworld because you'll likely have a battle as soon as you enter, otherwise. The dreamworld can also allow you to get past those ranged units and pop out into the real world right next to the unit instead of taking damage from the arrows while trying to run over to him. And, a final useful thing about the dreamworld is that you can gain essence (improves attunements) and get hex marks (gives points to improve stats). You can gain those same things by fighting in the real world and the dreamworld, but the bonuses are only available in the dreamworld.

Next, are the attunements. These are spells, skills, and abilities for your character. Unlike most other games, you can only gain these by using various equipment items. This makes it so that you really need to use almost everything you find in the game, for at least a little while, so that you can gain the attunement. Once you have the attunement, you don't need to use the equipment anymore. Using the equipment just lets you learn the attunement. Once learned, it can be used at any time (if you equip it and you have the right requirements met). You have a limited number of *active* attunement slots in the game, though they will increase as you level up. Whenever you rest, you can choose which attunements to have active. So, as an example, when you know you're going to fight undead, activate the undead killing attunement that will give bonus damage to the undead. And, if you plan to use a Fire weapon, activate an attunement that adds bonus fire damage, and another that has a fire spell. The wide variety of attunements will let you customize your character over and over. And requiring you to use equipment to gain the attunements forces you to not use a single weapon/armor combination all the time as you might in other games.

Another interesting thing about the game is how your character's role is defined. You are an inquisitor whose goal is to stamp out religion of any form. However, it is up to you to decide whether to maintain that goal, or choose to help religion to grow once again. Many games offer the "light" and "dark" paths, but usually your tasks aren't much different. In this game (once you're far enough into the game), your choices create rather distinct paths.

As a note about the latest patch (v1.1), the ability to open more than "bag" inventory at the same time is very useful. This way, you can open two bags and also see your main inventory screen, so you can move things between them easily (or sell things from them or purchase things and place them directly into the bags).

The Bad

Even with the latest patch (v1.1), the game is buggy. Creatures can get stuck in walls and objects, making them easy targets (or difficult-to-hit targets since you might have to be in just the right location to hit them instead of the wall). I also have problems when resting... about 1 in 10 times I rest, the game will crash.

The Bottom Line

If you want an RPG that offers some unique characteristics not found in most other RPGs, try this game out. It's really worth playing and, as a bonus, the graphics are very nice.